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Diablo IV Devs Talk Adding Seasons, Keeping the Meta Fresh, and Monetization Plans Post-Launch | MMO

SystemSystem Member UncommonPosts: 12,599
edited August 2022 in News & Features Discussion

imageDiablo IV Devs Talk Adding Seasons, Keeping the Meta Fresh, and Monetization Plans Post-Launch | MMORPG.com

Set for release next year, Diablo IV devs talk about post-launch plans, including balancing the meta, adding a seasonal model and Season Pass, and monetization.

Read the full story here


Comments

  • skeaserskeaser Member RarePosts: 4,199
    Honestly, I think this design looks like the best possible outcome for D4. The MTX doesn't look unfair and should keep the game supported for years to come.
    Sig so that badges don't eat my posts.


  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 6,050
    skeaser said:
    Honestly, I think this design looks like the best possible outcome for D4. The MTX doesn't look unfair and should keep the game supported for years to come.
    I would not say it's the best possible.  The best possible wouldn't have early access if you pay more or a paid battlepass in addition to a full cosmetic shop.

    Some people have been concerned that the currently free XP potions, from the battlepass free portion,  could be moved to the cash shop.  I'm curious if the XP potions just boost you to the level cap or go beyond into whatever paragon type of system they implement.  The game clearly won't be competitive in terms of leveling to the cap so it's not really a big deal to me.

    I've seen nothing that would keep me from getting the game, although it's long past time for them to provide an update on how they've improved itemization.  As that is the by far the weakest element they've revealed.

    In the end, I expect D4 to be the third or fourth most played ARPG going forward, behind Last Epoch, D2R and POE.  I just don't think they have the know how or passion to make an amazing ARPG.  Hopefully I'm wrong.
  • AngrakhanAngrakhan Member EpicPosts: 1,750


    In the end, I expect D4 to be the third or fourth most played ARPG going forward, behind Last Epoch, D2R and POE.  I just don't think they have the know how or passion to make an amazing ARPG.  Hopefully I'm wrong.



    Oh I don't know about that. Last Epoch gets old. I enjoy it, but I've yet to get a character to 100 and I have a pile of alts and hundreds of hours of logged game time. The grind post 80 is just really boring. They really need to add a game+ mode, so you can do the story again on a higher difficulty. Grinding monoliths just isn't super compelling.

    I played plenty of D2 back when it was actually current. I really don't need to put on my rose colored glasses and relive the 'good old days' which weren't really that great to begin with.

    I hate PoE. The way the game is designed just bothers me in several aspects. The primary one being you have to find your powers as drops. The second being the fact that between all the gold farmers and POE.trade you can basically open your wallet wide enough to buy yourself the best build in the game. Sure you still have to level everything, but as far as RNG goes, why bother, just P2W. People argue up and down it's not a P2W game and yet they definitely designed it in such a way you can do exactly that.

    I'll be spending my time in D4 until it's played out for sure. We'll see if their end game is any more compelling than anything else out there. Unlikely. Honestly, I spend a ton of time in Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor, but I'm a big 40k lore fan, so they don't have to try too hard to get my business.
  • UwakionnaUwakionna Member RarePosts: 1,139
    I take it this article is thanks to Blizz trying to head off the less favorable information coming out of leaks.
  • KumaponKumapon Member EpicPosts: 1,605
    D2 was peak Diablo. It is no longer about how do we make a great game. It’s all about how many ways can we monetize it. Too many suits chasing the dollars.
    starstorm777McSleazAsm0deus
  • mithossmithoss Member UncommonPosts: 227
    edited August 2022

    I hate PoE. The way the game is designed just bothers me in several aspects. The primary one being you have to find your powers as drops. The second being the fact that between all the gold farmers and POE.trade you can basically open your wallet wide enough to buy yourself the best build in the game. Sure you still have to level everything, but as far as RNG goes, why bother, just P2W. People argue up and down it's not a P2W game and yet they definitely designed it in such a way you can do exactly that.


    My friend, from your comment i gather you never played PoE, so please dont spread misinformation. Also, nobody honestly argues about poe being pay to win.
    IselinTacticalZombeh
  • MrdGamezMrdGamez Member UncommonPosts: 58

    Angrakhan said:





    In the end, I expect D4 to be the third or fourth most played ARPG going forward, behind Last Epoch, D2R and POE.  I just don't think they have the know how or passion to make an amazing ARPG.  Hopefully I'm wrong.






    Oh I don't know about that. Last Epoch gets old. I enjoy it, but I've yet to get a character to 100 and I have a pile of alts and hundreds of hours of logged game time. The grind post 80 is just really boring. They really need to add a game+ mode, so you can do the story again on a higher difficulty. Grinding monoliths just isn't super compelling.



    I played plenty of D2 back when it was actually current. I really don't need to put on my rose colored glasses and relive the 'good old days' which weren't really that great to begin with.



    I hate PoE. The way the game is designed just bothers me in several aspects. The primary one being you have to find your powers as drops. The second being the fact that between all the gold farmers and POE.trade you can basically open your wallet wide enough to buy yourself the best build in the game. Sure you still have to level everything, but as far as RNG goes, why bother, just P2W. People argue up and down it's not a P2W game and yet they definitely designed it in such a way you can do exactly that.



    I'll be spending my time in D4 until it's played out for sure. We'll see if their end game is any more compelling than anything else out there. Unlikely. Honestly, I spend a ton of time in Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor, but I'm a big 40k lore fan, so they don't have to try too hard to get my business.




    I don't think you ever played POE..saying the game is P2W what is totally BS, try harder....
  • AngrakhanAngrakhan Member EpicPosts: 1,750

    MrdGamez said:



    Angrakhan said:








    In the end, I expect D4 to be the third or fourth most played ARPG going forward, behind Last Epoch, D2R and POE.  I just don't think they have the know how or passion to make an amazing ARPG.  Hopefully I'm wrong.









    Oh I don't know about that. Last Epoch gets old. I enjoy it, but I've yet to get a character to 100 and I have a pile of alts and hundreds of hours of logged game time. The grind post 80 is just really boring. They really need to add a game+ mode, so you can do the story again on a higher difficulty. Grinding monoliths just isn't super compelling.





    I played plenty of D2 back when it was actually current. I really don't need to put on my rose colored glasses and relive the 'good old days' which weren't really that great to begin with.





    I hate PoE. The way the game is designed just bothers me in several aspects. The primary one being you have to find your powers as drops. The second being the fact that between all the gold farmers and POE.trade you can basically open your wallet wide enough to buy yourself the best build in the game. Sure you still have to level everything, but as far as RNG goes, why bother, just P2W. People argue up and down it's not a P2W game and yet they definitely designed it in such a way you can do exactly that.





    I'll be spending my time in D4 until it's played out for sure. We'll see if their end game is any more compelling than anything else out there. Unlikely. Honestly, I spend a ton of time in Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor, but I'm a big 40k lore fan, so they don't have to try too hard to get my business.








    I don't think you ever played POE..saying the game is P2W what is totally BS, try harder....



    Played plenty. Step 1: buy currency from any of the multitude of gold farmers advertising in chat. Step 2: head over to poe.trade and buy the gear for your build. Is this rocket science? Not sure how to break it down much more than that.
    [Deleted User]kitaradTacticalZombeh
  • mithossmithoss Member UncommonPosts: 227

    Played plenty. Step 1: buy currency from any of the multitude of gold farmers advertising in chat. Step 2: head over to poe.trade and buy the gear for your build. Is this rocket science? Not sure how to break it down much more than that.

    i'm sorry but thats not p2w, thats just breaching to ToS to gain an advantage. For a game to be p2w the method to gain a paid advantage must be allowed/encourage by the game (see diablo immortal). By your definition every multiplayer game would be p2w if you employ shady websites and breach the ToS, i.e. buy a high ranking account in CS:GO.
    [Deleted User]McSleazIselinsupx2TacticalZombeh
  • TruvidiennTruvidienn Member UncommonPosts: 346
    The only thing I'm not a fan of is seasons.. I'd rather just be able to play through the game and keep farming in the open world and go at my own pace and not having to reroll alts just to keep up with all the seasonal cosmetics. While I know they said characters will go into the Eternal Realm but still.
    Asm0deus
  • McSleazMcSleaz Member RarePosts: 280
    edited August 2022
    I hope it has housing. Blizzard needs to learn that playing the decoration game keeps plenty of players like me around. I played EQ2 for a good while just for the housing :) And when I go back to ESO once in awhile, I mostly grind for housing items.
  • CygiCygi Member RarePosts: 257
    edited August 2022
    Microtransactions in the game = only in F2P
    Full priced game = always no microtransactions

    Pick one, Activision-Blizzard.
  • SovrathSovrath Member LegendaryPosts: 32,780

    Angrakhan said:



    MrdGamez said:





    Angrakhan said:











    In the end, I expect D4 to be the third or fourth most played ARPG going forward, behind Last Epoch, D2R and POE.  I just don't think they have the know how or passion to make an amazing ARPG.  Hopefully I'm wrong.












    Oh I don't know about that. Last Epoch gets old. I enjoy it, but I've yet to get a character to 100 and I have a pile of alts and hundreds of hours of logged game time. The grind post 80 is just really boring. They really need to add a game+ mode, so you can do the story again on a higher difficulty. Grinding monoliths just isn't super compelling.







    I played plenty of D2 back when it was actually current. I really don't need to put on my rose colored glasses and relive the 'good old days' which weren't really that great to begin with.







    I hate PoE. The way the game is designed just bothers me in several aspects. The primary one being you have to find your powers as drops. The second being the fact that between all the gold farmers and POE.trade you can basically open your wallet wide enough to buy yourself the best build in the game. Sure you still have to level everything, but as far as RNG goes, why bother, just P2W. People argue up and down it's not a P2W game and yet they definitely designed it in such a way you can do exactly that.







    I'll be spending my time in D4 until it's played out for sure. We'll see if their end game is any more compelling than anything else out there. Unlikely. Honestly, I spend a ton of time in Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor, but I'm a big 40k lore fan, so they don't have to try too hard to get my business.












    I don't think you ever played POE..saying the game is P2W what is totally BS, try harder....






    Played plenty. Step 1: buy currency from any of the multitude of gold farmers advertising in chat. Step 2: head over to poe.trade and buy the gear for your build. Is this rocket science? Not sure how to break it down much more than that.



    That's not pay to win.

    Pay to win means that the game is set up so you can open your wallet up and buy things from the in-game store to give you an advantage over other players.

    What you are talking about is old fashioned gold farmer/buy items stuff. It's pretty much the original "ebay" model for players to buy gold and items and get ahead.

    "pay to win game" is a game that is set up for players to buy advantage, not buy advantage to circumvent the game design. Otherwise pretty much all mmorpg's would be pay to win.
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  • MendelMendel Member LegendaryPosts: 5,609
    A new monetization scheme?  I guess Blizzard wasn't completely satisfied with the old one.  When they get all the money, will the next plan involve coming to your house to kick your dog?



    Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.

  • emperorhades1emperorhades1 Member RarePosts: 416
    The fact that they are worried about the meta tells me that they are already making the boring stupid sets and not making fun items.
  • IselinIselin Member LegendaryPosts: 18,719
    Cygi said:
    Microtransactions in the game = only in F2P
    Full priced game = always no microtransactions

    Pick one, Activision-Blizzard.
    That ship sailed a long time ago. The name of the game now is:

    • Sell it for something - anything - because players think it's a better game if it's not free.
    • Make it multiplayer online even if the IP was formerly single player - Amazingly many players judging by the way they talk online, want every single new game to be MO.
    • Now that it's MO, monetize the crap out of cosmetics because players want to outdo each other with the latest bling. It's the age of competitive PvP dress-up.
    • Create seasons or other hooks to make it persistent. Now you have the holy grail of monetization, a Game as a Service (GAAS.)

    Welcome to 2022.
    Asm0deus
    "Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”

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  • FrodoFraginsFrodoFragins Member EpicPosts: 6,050
    edited August 2022
    Given the Twitter updates today I'd say most of my concerns are gone.

    • You can't sell shop bought stuff to other players - good
    • they will offer tons of free xmogs that look great - very good
    • xmogs aren't locked per character but per class - makes sense


    The things I hate are:

    1. early access for spending more.  This will have an impact on leaderboards but hopefully the game launches without a season so it won't matter once the first season arrives.  I'm not a competitor for them but it's the principle
    2. Battle Pass - I'm not a fan of Battle Passes for a full price game with a cash shop.  But I learned long ago to give up on being a completionist collector(thanks to marvel heroes)


  • DattelisDattelis Member EpicPosts: 1,674
    I dont think people should really be shocked by the monetization simply because its the path Activision has been following for CoD for years now and at the end of the day, the company is still known as Activision-Blizzard. Couple that with Blizzard not really releasing titles all that often, so I dont think this Activision model will end up 'as bad' as it does with them. That said, I'm not saying all of this to defend it, I'm just saying it because this model is nothing new with the company as a whole.
  • WarlyxWarlyx Member EpicPosts: 3,367
    the forced online , forced multiplayer (open world) im not sure.....
    Asm0deus
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  • TheDalaiBombaTheDalaiBomba Member EpicPosts: 1,493
    edited August 2022
    Sovrath said:


    That's not pay to win.

    Pay to win means that the game is set up so you can open your wallet up and buy things from the in-game store to give you an advantage over other players.

    What you are talking about is old fashioned gold farmer/buy items stuff. It's pretty much the original "ebay" model for players to buy gold and items and get ahead.

    "pay to win game" is a game that is set up for players to buy advantage, not buy advantage to circumvent the game design. Otherwise pretty much all mmorpg's would be pay to win.
    Not sure that definition is specific enough, considering many MMORPGs now include ways to buy your way past/minimize engagement with the game systems.


    Boosts are literally sold to circumvent all or most of the leveling process.  In a game like WoW, that's circumventing, like, 95% of the game's world and content.  In other games, shops offer ways to ensure an RNG upgrade or reduce the grind needed to upgrade, thereby assisting players in avoiding or minimizing their engagement with those game systems.

    It's quite the perverted set of design incentives, and we see a rather schizophrenic result: grinds made longer to push players to pay to avoid or minimize those same grinds.  As much attention is paid to calibrating these for maximum monetary profit as is paid to making those grinds fun or interesting (in many cases, one could legitimately argue more time was placed on calibrating the profit effectiveness).  In fact, making them fun or interesting actually discourages players from paying you to skip it.  The trick is in making the combat seem just engaging enough to convince players they'll start having the real fun once they work (READ: pay) through those intentionally annoying grinds.

    Isn't microtransaction monetization fun???
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